Friday, July 5, 2013

South Carolina Troops at Gettysburg Speech

I had the opportunity and honor to speak on July 1, 2013 at a Battle of Gettysburg sesquicentennial memorial held at Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery where 82 S.C. soldiers killed at Gettysburg were reinterred in 1871 from graves on the Pennsylvania battlefied. (See Charleston Post and Courier coverage- for P&C Warren Peper video do Google search)

This headstone at Magnolia Cemetery marks the remains of nearly a dozen S.C. soldiers who fell at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863

I spoke about the role of South Carolina troops at this momentous Civil War battle. Here are the key excerpts: Gettysburg
and S.C. Soldiers

South
Carolina was well-represented at the Battle of Gettysburg, which began 150
years ago today.

Nearly
5,000 South Carolina soldiers fought in the battle. They were an integral part
of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which numbered 70,000 going into Gettysburg. Union Gen. George Meade's Army of the Potomac had 94,000 men.

Of
those 5,000 South Carolinians, more than 300 died in the battle…and nearly 1,000 were wounded.
That’s a killed or wounded ratio of roughly 26-percent…more than one-in-four.

Most
of the Palmetto State men fought as part of two of the three large Confederate
army corps...in General James Longstreet’s First Corps…and General A.P. Hill’s
third corps. Longstreet himself has South Carolina ties. He was born in what is today North Augusta…in Edgefield
County, South Carolina.

In
Longstreet’s first corps…the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 8th,
and 15th South Carolina Infantry Regiments and the 3rd
South Carolina Battalion made up Kershaw’s Brigade…under the command of General
Joseph Kershaw of Camden, South Carolina.

Kershaw’s
Brigade had nearly 22-hundred men at the start of Gettysburg and came out with 650
fewer…with 175 men killed…425 wounded…and 50 missing.

The
82 South Carolina Confederates buried here behind us were in Kershaw’s Brigade.
They include members of the Palmetto Guard who were from Charleston and
Beaufort Counties. The poignant and dramatic headstone where a wreath will be
laid shortly is the grave of nearly a dozen Palmetto Guard soldiers who were
killed on July 2nd, the second day of the epic Battle of Gettysburg.

Iconic
Gettysburg landmarks such as the Peach Orchard…the Wheatfield…and Rose Hill Farm…are
where these men fought…and died.

Our
next speaker, John Spear, will detail the herculean efforts of Charleston’s
Ladies Memorial Association to bring home from Gettysburg the remains of these
sons of South Carolina. It did not sit well with the women in that organization
and many others as well…to have these men buried in shallow graves in
Pennsylvania. It took several years but the L-M-A did successfully bring home
dozens of South Carolinians for reburial here on the Soldiers Ground of
Magnolia Cemetery.

Also
in the battle as part of Longstreet’s First Corps were several South Carolina
artillery units…the Charleston German, Palmetto Light, Brooks and Alexander’s
Battalion artillery. They and their cannon were also in the thick of things at
Gettysburg…including the massive artillery barrage unleashed on the Union lines
prior to the fateful Pickett’s Charge on the battle’s final day

In
A.P. Hill’s Third Army Corps were also several South Carolina infantry
regiments…the 1stProvisional…the
1st South Carolina Rifles, and the 12th, 13th
and 14th South Carolina infantry regiments. Cannon fire was provided by Pegram’s Battery and the
Pee Dee artillery, each from South Carolina, that were part also part of Hill’s corps.

Those
South Carolinians fought in all three days of the battle but took a
particularly prominent part in Gettysburg’s first day…July 1st…150 years ago
today…as they dislodged Union forces from Seminary Ridge and chased them into
town, capturing many prisoners.

Wade
Hampton

Now,
any discussion about South Carolinians at Gettysburg would be far from complete
without mention of cavalry commander Wade Hampton and his harrowing experiences
in the great battle.

General Hampton
was born in Charleston at 54 Hasell street to a very wealthy family. Prior to the war, he was
a lawyer, plantation owner and state representative and senator. Hampton would
inherit great wealth to the extent that when the Civil War started he financed
his own army of sorts…Hampton’s Legion, which had its own infantry, artillery
and cavalry units.

Wade
Hampton was wounded in battle seven times at four different battles…at First
Manassas or Bull Run where a bullet creased his head…at the Battle of Seven
Pines where he was shot in the foot. At Brandy Station…the war’s largest
cavalry battle…fought three weeks before Gettysburg…he suffered another wound,
this one minor.

Hampton
and his approximately 2,000 men were part of JEB Stuart’s 12,000 member cavalry
division. Stuart came under severe criticism at and after Gettysburg for his
foray into Pennyslvania…around the Union army east of Gettysburg.

Stuart
lost touch with Robert E. Lee for a few crucial days, leaving Lee without
needed intelligence about the Yankee movements and positions. This caused Lee to deploy and
fight on ground and positions that were not to his favor.

Stuart
and Hampton did not engage the enemy until the evening of the battle’s second
day. In a skirmish with Yankee cavalry he...Hampton... charged a Union soldier aiming a
musket at him 200 yards away. Hampton charged the trooper before he could fire his
rifle, but another trooper blindsided Hampton with a saber cut to the back of
his head.

The next day, on July 3, Hampton led the cavalry attack
to the east of Gettysburg, attempting to disrupt the Union rear areas, but
collided with Union cavalry along the way. Among the Yankee cavalry Hampton and his men went
up against was a brash young general from Michigan—George Armstrong Custer.

In this fight, which came to hand-to-hand and
sword-to-sword Hampton took two more saber cuts to the front of his head, but
continued fighting until he was wounded again with a piece of shrapnel to the
hip. He was carried back to Virginia in the same ambulance as fellow wounded General John
Bell Hood.

Hampton survived Gettysburg and in fact would… in 1864…
replace JEB Stuart as Robert E. Lee’s cavalry chieftan after Stuart was killed
in the Battle of Yellow Tavern.

After the war, Wade Hampton lost much of his wealth from the war but he
would have a prominent political career…as South Carolina governor and then
U.S. Senator. He was lauded for bringing the state out of the post war Reconstruction
period.

Wade Hampton’s name is on the front of the Confederate
soldier statue behind you, which for the prominence of his name on it is
sometimes mistakenly called by some the Wade Hampton statue or monument. His name is
there for his many contributions to the state during and after the war…and some
would say for his part in fostering the Confederacy’s “Lost Cause” legacy.

More
Magnolia Cemetery Confederacy Legacy

My
forthcoming book, “In the Arms of Angels: The History, Mystery and Artistry of
Magnolia Cemetery” includes a lengthy chapter on the legacy of the Confederacy
here.

I
write about and show photographs of the Soldiers Ground section where we stand
right now. I cover the Hunley memorial, which is the most visited site here.
That’s where the three crews of the famous first submarine to sink a ship in a
war are interred. Go by today and see it if you haven’t yet. It’s behind us in
that direction. Just follow the signs.

Magnolia
is also the eternal home to six Confederate generals. Perhaps the best known
was Micah Jenkins of Edisto Island. General Jenkins was a rising star in the army,
destined to become a corps commander many felt, but who…like Stonewall
Jackson…was tragically shot by his own side…on May 6, 1864 at the Battle of the
Wilderness in Virginia. Jenkins died a few hours later from the head wound. He
was 28 years old.

You
can walk around the 150 acres here and see many, manyreferences to the Civil War. Some 22-hundred
Confederates veterans who survived survived the war…many who were killed in action…and mortally
wounded soldiers and sailors were buried here. Small battle flags adorn many of
the graves, placed by local Confederate groups. So that makes them easy to spot
as your tour the grounds.

The
range of South Carolina’s involvement in the war is impressively evident
here…if you really look for it and study it…which I have. Several Confederate government leaders were buried here. There are men buried
here who were killed or mortally wounded in every major battle of the war…in
both the Eastern and Western theaters of operation.

The
battles around Charleston are well-represented of course…Fort Sumter…when
occupied by Southern troops who came under intense Union naval and ground fire
in 1863-1864.Confederates killed at
Secessionville…Morris Island…Pocotaligo…and other area battles are here too.

But
so are some Charleston soldiers killed in the many major Virginia battles at First
and Second Manassas, the Peninsula or Seven Days Battles Campaign,
Fredericksburg, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor and Petersburg,
to name several.

A
Confederate soldier killed at Sharpburg or Antietam in Maryland…the bloodiest single day of
the war on September 17, 1862…is memorialized with a large monument just over there behind the pond.

South
Carolina regiments were also sent to the West. And some of those are buried
here who fought and died at major Western battles in Tennessee and Georgia such as Shiloh, Murfreesboro,
Chickamauga, Franklin and Atlanta, among others.

To
me personally it’s kind of chilling to see the direct references by name to the battles
and armies inscribed on some of the headstones, monuments and memorials. It
really brings alive the history!

Robert
E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia judge advocate general is buried here…so is
one of Lee’s chief surgeons, as is Lee’s
namesake grandson Robert E. Lee III.

If
only these stones could speak!

A
final tie between Gettysburg and Magnolia Cemetery is the South Carolina
monument on the Gettysburg battlefield itself. It is located southwest of
Gettysburg on West Confederate Avenue. The monument shows an outline of the
state, its seal, and palmetto trees alongside a list of the South Carolina
units that fought at Gettysburg.

At
the base of the front of the monument is a line from “Ode to Magnolia Cemetery”
by the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy, Charleston’s own Henry Timrod. Timrod
read his specially written poem in 1867 during Magnolia Cemetery’s Confederate
grave decoration service.

The
words he read then and that are inscribed in South Carolina’s Gettysburg
monument are these:

Quote--
“There is no holier spot of ground than where defeated valor lies, by mourning
beauty crowned.” –end quote

Today…we
mourn and honor not just the sons of South Carolina lost at Gettysburg…but the
sons of all states both South and North.

At Gettysburg, the
numbers are staggering: 7,863 killed…27,224 wounded…11,199 missing…total of all
these casualties: 46,286. The Battle of Gettysburg 150 years ago today, tomorrow and Wednesday.

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About CofC Scene

I created this blog for teaching purposes in my College of Charleston communication courses. I try to show my students an array of content and creations that will, hopefully, make them want to keep blogging even after their classes with me and other CofC faculty are over. Enter your email below to receive my postings. Thanks! --Patrick Harwood